Hot sandwiches are ideal for convenience food in many ways, they can be quickly prepared, quickly consumed, and generally no utensils are necessary for their consumption. However, the perfect convenience food must be capable of being prepared before it is needed, stored and then served almost immediately after the consumer places an order. In this respect, hot food items such as tacos, hot dogs and other elongated food items which require a folded shell fall short of being a perfect convenience food in that it is difficult to provide a suitable but inexpensive package for storing, serving and consuming such articles. Further, it is often necessary to support the elongated food item in an upright position in order to prevent the contents thereof from being displaced from their shell.
One attempt in overcoming such shortcomings is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,259 issued to Cortopassi wherein a pocket wrap is disclosed for wrapping about an elongated food product such as a taco, burrito, or hot dog. With the pocket wrap disclosed therein, a sheet of wrapping material is formed into an envelope having an elongated open edge and open end with the food product being placed within the envelope. Subsequently, the opened end of the pocket is folded inwardly and an overwrap is folded over the food product to close the elongated side of the envelope. However, with such a construction due to the expandability of the food product and the lack of retaining pressure along the upper elongated length of the envelope, the envelope may readily open thus exposing the contents of the envelope due to the lack of support of the food product placed therein. Moreover, because this envelope requires an overwrap, essentially three side panels need be present which results in a significant waste of wrapping material versus a bag which requires only two panels.
A tri-cornered bag disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,430,841 issued to Kanaga is formed of a paper stock material having a closed end and an open end for receiving an elongated type food product. However, consumption of the elongated food product is made difficult in that the food product must be removed from the open end of the tri-cornered bag. Further, because the closed end of the tri-cornered bag is in the form of a triangle, the bag does not exert a significant restraining force on the food product placed within the bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,863 issued to Vandenburg sic, Vandenberg! and assigned to the assignee of the subject invention, the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference, discloses a bag which is formed from a three layer composite wrap material. The bag includes front and back panels which are hingedly connected to one another by way of gusseted side panels along both longitudinally extending sides of the bag. In order to gain access to the contents of the bag, a rip cord or tear strip is provided which traverses laterally across the longitudinal length of the bag. Again, while this bag does in fact form a receptacle for a food product which provides a convenient means for consuming the food product while maintaining the food product in a partially wrapped condition to prevent cooling of the product and soiling of the hands of the consumer, this bag does not provide sufficient lateral support to an elongated food product such as a taco, hot dog or the like.
Similarly, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 909,172 filed Jul. 6, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,366 and assigned to the assignee of the subject application, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference discloses in another package for accommodating a food product wherein the package is in the form of a bag having gusseted side panels which permit the bag to expand and receive a food product therein. The bag further includes perforated lines extending along each of the gusseted side panels in order to permit a front or top panel of the bag to be substantially removed to uncover the contents thereof. This is done so as to utilize the food product package itself as a sanitary surface from which to consume the food products. However, again this bag cannot provide sufficient lateral support to an elongated food product which is susceptible to expanding and consequently opening within the bag itself.
Clearly, there is a need for a simple bag construction for accommodating an elongated folded food product which provides lateral support to such food product when placed within the bag to prevent the food product from expanding therein. Moreover, there is a need for a package for accommodating an elongated food product which laterally supports the food product when placed therein and which ready access to the contents of the package may be provided.